This January Flying Cloud Institute is bringing its mission of inspiring young people through dynamic science and art activities into many schools. We’ve been in residency at Undermountain Elementary in Sheffield exploring force and motion with Kindergarteners and at Morningside Elementary in Pittsfield working on astronomy and animation with 5th graders. Girls Science clubs are running at Conte Community School and Crosby Elementary, a STEAM Team for young women at Reid Middle School, and Regional girls Robotics program at the Mason Library. At the MakerSpace program at Muddy Brook Elementary students have been creating their own catapult designs using Legos. and a S•M•Art Studio program for the students of South […]

Students at this fall’s MakerSpace program at Southern Berkshire Regional School District are exploring energy and electricity generation. They have been experimenting with solar panels and wind turbines, they’ve made small hand crank simple generators, some have experimented with fuel cells and they are working to design their own systems for producing electricity using a variety of these methods. Through the process they are learning about simple circuits, learning to use tools like a soldering iron, and simple power tools, and 3-d printing designs. This program is made possible in part through support from the Eagle Fund, the local cultural councils of New Marlborough, Alford-Egremont, Sheffield and Monterey, Mt. Washington […]

We will be offering two SMArt Studio MakerSpace programs afterschool this winter. Lindsey will be offering an introductory MakerSpace course for 5th and 6th graders at Monument Valley Middle School on Tuesdays starting January 9th and Kristen will be offering an open studio MakerSpace for 6th-8th graders at Southern Berkshire beginning January 8th. At our MakerSpaces students learn skills in design and technology while being encouraged to take on engineering challenges and inventing their own projects. These programs combine art, design thinking, coding, electronics and more. Learn more

Lindsey Berkowitz will be leading three mornings of programming in the MakerSpace at Mount Everett during April vacation for students in grades 4 – 6. Each day students will be immersed in a specialized “Making” experience. One day they will dive into programming, coding and technology, the next they’ll be doing construction and design work. They’ll finish off the week with physics and fun by creating a large-scale Rube-Goldberg Machine. Previous “maker” experience is recommended but not required. Open to students in grades 4 -6 Monday 4/17, Wednesday 4/19, Friday 4/21 9 am – 1pm $40 per day, $100 for all three days Please bring lunch and a snack

We are very excited to kick off Makerspace programming at Southern Berkshire Regional School District this winter as we take over the management of the Berkshire MakerKids program established 3 years ago by Paul O’Brien and Tim Newman. This is a 21st century approach to education where creative thinking is encouraged. They, along with other volunteer mentors, taught the first cohort of participants to use a variety of power tools, how to make circuits and solder, how to code and 3-d model, gave them many engineering design challenges, and so much more! In the spring of 2016 Lindsey Berkowitz offered an introductory section of Makerspace for a new cohort of […]